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About Burning Man
What we have to do is make progress in the quality of connection between people, not the quantity of consumption.
– Larry Harvey, Burning Man’s Founder
Burning Man is a global cultural movement advancing a more creative, connected and thriving society.
Burning Man Project is the nonprofit in service to the global Burning Man cultural movement, igniting participatory creativity year-round by producing Black Rock City, supporting gatherings, and providing tools, inspiration, and guidance to anyone wishing to spark Burning Man in their lives and communities.
Black Rock City is a temporary participatory city that brings tens of thousands of people together in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. For eight days, this co-created ephemeral metropolis is a living embodiment of Burning Man’s 10 Principles, inspiring people to cultivate more connection, creativity, and awe in their day-to-day lives and the world around them.
Explore the global impact of Burning Man culture in the 2025 Dispatch.
Hot Topics for 2026
Igniting the Next Generation
The connection, creativity, and leadership opportunities that Burning Man offers are a timely remedy for next-gen innovators, many of whom are looking for ways to break out today’s over-optimized digital culture. The Rising Sparks is a grassroots collective opening pathways for next-generation innovators, dreamers, and cultural architects to shape the future of Burning Man. To learn more, drop by Rising Sparks’ Matcha Meetup in Center Camp at 10am, Monday, August 31 and Friday, September 4.
The Global Cultural Impact of Burning Man
Burning Man celebrated a big milestone this year: 40 years since the first Man burn on a San Francisco beach. Through four momentous decades, Burning Man grew from a gathering of friends, to a desert metropolis, and finally into a cultural movement ignited by more than one million people in Black Rock City and around the world.
Burning Man shapes how people gather, create, and engage with their local communities worldwide. In 2025, approximately 110,000 people took part in 96 community-run Regional Events across more than 30 countries; this number does not include Black Rock City. Beyond Regional Events, communities around the world bring Burning Man to life in many other ways — from civic activations, local art projects, and grassroots resilience projects, to interactive public art installations and cultural events.
The Connective Power of Immediacy
Black Rock City comes to life through the Immediacy of human connection and hands-on collaboration. When participants step out of their comfort zones and create something bigger than themselves, the magic happens: we cultivate a sense of belonging and awe many are seeking in today’s over-optimized digital world.
Celebrate the Small: Embracing the Human Scale of Black Rock City
Bringing your creativity to Burning Man is as easy as having a fun idea and making it happen. Quirky gifts, one-on-one interactions, and small gestures exemplify Burning Man culture. Most playa magic happens on a human scale, through the whimsy of small moments.
A More Sustainable and Regenerative Black Rock City
Burning Man has long been a laboratory for sustainability innovation. Thanks to continued transformational philanthropic support, Burning Man Project is able to carry on the work that began in 2019 to get Black Rock City Off Fossil Fuels. In 2025, Black Rock City operations reduced fossil fuel emissions by 48%. Across the city as a whole, fossil fuel emissions were at least 25% lower than they would have been without solar, batteries, and renewable fuels.
Notable sustainability projects in Black Rock City 2026:
- Black Rock City’s first megawatt-scale solar array, SOLAR STATION (2:00 & K), is gifting solar-powered charging for participants’ devices, e-bikes, and electric mutant vehicles.
- Black Rock Compost, hosted by Camp GYST (7:00 & A), invites participants to drop off their dried food scraps; the compost that results is used to grow food on Fly Ranch.
- Explore Green Corridors from Esplanade to F along 4:00 and 7:00. This network of camps leads sustainability efforts and offers many opportunities to teach, learn and green your Burn.
Black Rock City in 2026
The 2026 Theme: Axis Mundi
In nearly every culture on Earth, people have imagined a center point for their existence — a celestial column connecting us to powers greater than ourselves. Burning Man’s 2026 theme Axis Mundi will celebrate the interconnectedness of this global community, the new social realities we’re creating together, and our enduring ties to the natural world.
Shape and Size of the City
- The pentagon encompassing Black Rock City spans 3,749 acres (5.8 square miles)
- The city grid (excluding open playa) covers 1,318 acres (2.06 square miles)
- The trash fence circling the city runs 9.2 miles
- +700 Department of Public Works staff build the city’s infrastructure
- +500 yellow-clad staff serve the Emergency Services Department
- +600 Black Rock Rangers mediate disputes and foster a safe community
- +700 mutant vehicles are approved to roam the playa as interactive, mobile art
Camps Animate and Support the City
Black Rock City comes to life and thrives through the Radical Self-expression, Participation, and Communal Effort of more than 900 participant-run placed theme camps, dozens of art support and staff camps, and hundreds of unplaced and impromptu theme camps.
Art in Black Rock City
Art expresses Burning Man’s participatory, inclusive ethos. In 2026, Burning Man Project invested more than $6 million in bringing art and artists through grant funding and extensive equipment and logistical support. Of this, more than $1.5 million was granted to artists through the Black Rock City Honoraria and Temple programs. Visit the ARTery on Esplanade near 6:30 to learn about the art and join an Art Discovery Tour.
Art by the numbers:
- 72 funded Honoraria art projects and approximately 282 other registered pieces (Many new, unregistered art projects arrive and are placed during the event!)
- 12 installations, including the Man and Temple, are scheduled to burn
2026 Man Pavilion “Cryptomeria”
Designed by artist and innovator Alexander Rose, the 2026 Man Pavilion was inspired by Japan’s ancient Jōmon Sugi cedar tree. The Man Pavilion serves as its own Axis Mundi, with three levels exploring the transition from the natural world to humanity to the celestial realm. Root-like paths will lead visitors inside, while a double spiral staircase rises through the Pavilion, inviting participants to contemplate the nexus of worlds above, and below.
“Temple of the Moon”
The Temple serves as a sacred, communal space for contemplation, reflection, celebration and remembrance before its ceremonial release by fire on Sunday night. Each year, the Burning Man Art Department selects a Temple design, and provides a grant to the artist to partially fund its construction and installation. The 2026 Temple artist, James Gwertzman drew his inspiration from the Queen of the Night, a desert cactus flower that blooms for a single night each year. “Temple of the Moon” was built in rhythm with the phases of the moon, a collaboration between Gwertzman, architect Annie-Locke Scherer, the Moonlight Collective, and the Temple Build Crew.